Sickle guard



P. W. MORRISSEY SICKLE GUARD Sept. 21, 1 54 2 ShetS-Sh8et 1 OriginalFiled June 29, 1946 IN VEN TOR.

BY V/Zw, aA v P 1954 P. w. MORRISSEY 2,689,445

SICKLE GUARD Original Filed June 29, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 BY flag 1 71INVENTQR.

Patented Sept. 21, 1954 SICKLE GUARD Patrick W. Morrissey, Racine, Wis.,assignor to J. I. Case Company, Racine, Wis., a corporation of WisconsinSubstituted for abandoned application Serial No. 680,396, June 29, 1946.This application June 8, 1950, Serial No. 166,914

3 Claims.

This application is a continuation of my copending application SerialNo. 680,396, filed June 29, 1946, now abandoned.

This invention relates to a sickle guard and to a method of fabricatingthe same.

Heretofore sickle guards have involved the use of a principal supportingmember or bar for attachment to the reaper, combine, or other type ofharvester, and to which bar have been bolted or otherwise attached theplurality of guard fingers.

It is important that the individual ledger plate seats, each underlyinga ledger plate, be carefully aligned, otherwise the sickle sections willbind or fail to shear properly. With individually secured guard fingers,it is extremely difficult to achieve such alignment. Moreover,individually secured fingers cast of malleable iron are subject tobreakage.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide a sickle guard fingergroup, including an elongated body having a plurality of integrallaterally-extending guard fingers, the unitary construction being theresult of rolling or forming a member to the required transversecross-seetional contour and shearing along a substantially U-shaped lineto cut portions out of one edge to leave a plurality of guard fingers.

A further object is to provide a sickle guard finger group made byrolling a bar longitudinally to provide the desired fore-and-aftvertical cross section of the guard fingers and connecting bar.

Another object is to provide a one-piece body as aforesaid in which eachfinger supports a shield overlying the moving sickle bar, and alsosupports a fixed ledger plate for cutting co-operation with the sicklebar.

Other objects will become apparent as the description proceeds. l

In the drawings, which show one manner in which my invention may beembodied:

Fig. 1 is a broken plan view of an elongated sickle guard constructionembodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of a section of the body indicating the method ofits manufacture;

Fig. 4 is an expoded perspective view of a shield and a ledger plate;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 1;

2 Fig. '7 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 1-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 8-8 of Fig. '1; and vFig. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken on the lip 99 of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the sickle guard construction showncomprises a supporting bar 8, indicated as an angle iron extending thelength of the sickle, and a sickle guard finger group made by rolling asteel bar to the cross section shown in Figs. 2 and 9 to provide thedesired vertical fore-and-aft cross section of the guard fingers and theconnecting bar, the upper surface portion being rolled to provide seatsfor the ledger plates and to provide guide means and clearance for thesickle bar 9. Each sickle guard group may have formed integrally wit theconnecting bar l0 any desired number of guard fingers II. In practice,five guard fingers in a group have been found satisfactory, although agreater or lesser number may be used. The fingers H are formed, afterthe bar has been rolled to the desired cross section, by shearing outbeteween the guard finger portions along a U-shaped line to provide thedesired spacing of the guard fingers. This rolling operation insuresthat that portion of the guard finger which provides a seat for theledger plate will lie in a plane common to all the seats, thus insuringalignment of the ledger plates with which the sickle bar sectionsco-operate.

Turning now to Fig. l, the connecting bar it is an elongated memberhaving extending therefrom and integral therewith a plurality oflaterally-extending guard fingers ll, there being as many such fingersas required by the length of the sickle bar or moving cutting blade.

The bar it comprises a flat mounting part Ha (Figs. 1 and 2) having aplurality of apertures I2 by means of which the assembly may be boltedtothe bar '8 of the harvester. Adjacent the part I la is a channel Hi toreceive certain parts of the reciprocating sickle bar 9, the channelbeing defined by a part I of substantially semicircular cross section.Projecting laterally from the part It is a plurality of usuallyequidistantly-spaced fingers I6 each having a nose I 1 formed by thearcuate sides and bottom of the finger.

Such body as just described is produced by the novel method of myinvention, the steps including the rolling in a suitable stand of ablank 20 (Fig. 3) of the fore-and-aft cross-sectional contour shown inFig. 2, and then punching or other- Wise removing from the blank 20 theplurality of peripherally U-shaped sections 2| to leave the fingers asshown in Figs. 1 and 2, the arcuate surfaces forming the nose I! beingthe result of the rolling'and cutting-out operations aforesaid. Theouter end of each U-shaped section 2| is flared to provide the noseportions 11. Apertures 12 may also be punched along with the sectionsI6, or they may be drilled. Such rolled members, fabricated as justdescribed, may be made in any convenient length, and welded or otherwisejoined end-to-end to provide a cutter bar of any length. Furthermore,the blank 20 may be extruded, forged, or otherwise worked to the desiredcross-sectional contour.

The rolled cross section also includes the shoulder 23 against which arebutted the individual shields 24 (Fig. 4) comprising the abutting edge25, the attaching portion 26, and the shroud 27, the portion 26 beingspot-welded to the finger I6 (Fig. 2).

Ledger plates 3| are of conventional construction, being riveted at 32at one end to the finger l6, and provided with a nib 33 (Fig. 4) forretaining the other end, there being a pair of downward proturberances34 deformed out of the plane of the guard 24 to marginally engage thenib 33. The rolled member also includes a surface 35 upon which theledger plates seat. The ledger plate Si is provided with a rivet hole35a for the rivet 32.

If desired, the sharp edges at the corners of the nose I! may be roundedslightly by grinding or otherwise, and the unit may be hardened adjacentthe sickle bar 9 by induction heating or otherwise, if desired, asindicated by crosshatching at 36.

It will be evident from the foregoing description that by utilizing arolled section, the several seats for the ledger plates are all disposedin one plane in order that all plates will co-operate properly with thecommon sickle bar. Thus problems of preliminary alignment of the ledgerplates inherent in prior structures are dispensed with.

While I have shown particular embodiments of my invention, it will beunderstood, of course, that I do not wish to be limited thereto sincemany modifications may be made, and I therefore contemplate by theappended claims to cover any such modifications as fall within the truespirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure byLetters Patent is:

l. A metal sickle guard finger having a pointed nose and a pair ofintegral supporting members extending laterally in opposite directionsfrom the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of said finger andthe lateral surfaces of said extension togethr forming a substantiallycontinuous sheared tortuous surface having successive portions such aswould be generated by a substantially vertical straight-line generatrixmoving in a horizontal direction and guided in a tortuous horizontalpath having the horizontal profile outline of the finger and members,the upper surfaces of said finger being generated by a laterally movablegeneratrix having the vertical profile outline of said finger surfacesand guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

2. A metal sickle guard finger having a pointed nose and a pair ofintegral supporting members extending laterally in opposite directionsfrom the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of said finger andthe lateral surfaces of said extension together forming a substantiallycontinuous sheared tortuous surface having successive portions such aswould be generated by a substantially vertical straight-line generatrixmoving in a horizontal direction and guided in a tortuous horizontalpath having the horizontal profile outline of the finger and members,the upper surfaces of said finger being generated by a laterally movablerollable generatrix having the vertical profile outline of said fingersurfaces and guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

3. A metal sickle guard finger group comprising a plurality ofintegrally connected fingers arranged in spaced side-by-sidesubstantially coplanar relation, each finger having a pointed nose and apair of integral supporting members extending laterally in oppositedirections from the rear of said finger, the lateral surfaces of saidfingers and the lateral surfaces of said extensions together forming asubstantially continuous sheared tortuous surface having successiveportions such as would be generated by a substantially verticalstraight-line generatrix moving in a horizontal direction and guided ina tortuous horizontal path having the horizontal profile outline of thefinger and members, the upper surfaces of said fingers being generatedby a laterally movable generatrix having the vertical profile outline ofsaid finger surfaces and guided by a straight-line horizontal directrix.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date Re. 451 Hussey Apr. 14, 1857 Re. 3,484 Newcomb June 1, 1869164,434 Dutton June 15, 1875 262,262 Vroman Aug. 8, 1882 642,485 PiersonJan. 30, 1900 1,171,764 Barden Feb. 15, 1916 1,610,401 Ward Dec. 14,1926 1,726,378 Barber Aug. 27, 1929 1,755,534 Borkhuis Apr. 22, 19302,039,012 Lindberg Apr. 28, 1936 2,039,771 Bishop May 5, 1936 2,619,787Mills et a1. Dec. 2, 1952

